Posted on 12/11/2014 7:49:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind
But Moore originally wrote it as Donder instead of Donner...why the change I have no idea.
And I educate myself, from Wikipedia:
In An American Anthology, 17871900, Edmund Clarence Stedman reprints the 1844 Clement Clarke Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of “Donder and Blitzen,” rather than the original 1823 version using the Dutch spelling, “Dunder and Blixem.”[1] Both phrases translate as “Thunder and Lightning” in English, though German for thunder is now spelled Donner, and the Dutch words would nowadays be spelled Donder and Bliksem.
“Santa is a jerk”
What isn’t well known is he likes to eat reindeer.
If you cannot pull the sleigh then your are dinner.
Good article. :)
The message I got was that even a "freak" like RRNR had a marketable skill.
Norelco was strictly a US brand name. In Canada and elsewhere the shavers were called Philishave but we saw the ads here too.
from wiki
History of the name[edit]
From the early 1940s, Philco was legally able to prevent Philips from using the name “Philips” on any products marketed in the USA, because the two names were judged to sound similar and that it may cause litigation. As a result, Philips instead used the name Norelco, an acronym for “North American Philips [electrical] Company.” Philips continued to use that name for all their US products until 1974, when Philips purchased The Magnavox Company. Philips then relabeled their US consumer electronics products to the Magnavox name, but retained the Norelco name for their other US products. When Philips bought Philco in 1981, Philips was able to freely use the Philips name for all of their US products, but they chose to retain the Norelco name for personal care appliances, and the Magnavox name for economy-priced consumer electronics.
One reason for retaining the Norelco name for personal care appliances was that a shift to the Philips name could have alienated those US buyers who were reluctant to purchase foreign brands. The market share of Philips, a European company, was very low in the US compared to other countries; with their Norelco and Magnavox brands, they were able to get a larger market share.[1]
Philips began co-branding their shavers “Philips Norelco” in 2005 to improve Philips brand recognition in the USA, a first step towards an intended phase out of the Norelco name.
It’s just a shiny nose, it’s not like it stopped him from regular reindeer stuff. But they hated him, all the way up until the Fat Man declared him cool.
Too funny ;)
Yes, poor old Rudolph was hated and kept from the reindeer games. Just like the fat kid always gets picked last for the playground team. And the teen with pimples never gets the girl.
Part of the message is that life is not fair. And you seem to have taken away that -- and only that -- message.
But how about the rest? That even the pimple-faced fat kid, who nobody wants to play with, can have a marketable skill and "shine" in America?
The message is pettiness is OK. Even Rudolf’s father is ashamed of him. Part of the problem is that the other reindeer are basically a nameless rabble. So it doesn’t portray them learning they were wrong, they just accept him once Santa (who also didn’t like him until that nose seemed useful) does. That really is the ONLY message: be liked and get liked.
There is no “rest”. And frankly your attempt to find one goes back to the basic problem of the story. Who cares about marketable skills? He’s looking for FRIENDS, he’s just a kid looking to participate with other children, he’s not looking for a job. The story winds up justifying the bad behavior, in the end they were right to hate him. It’s just plain not a good story, it sends the exact opposite message it purports.
..for my fellow dullards, he “went down in history”.
I have all the claymations and watch them each year. And cry.
We all have a place that we go that brings up the past. Santa story and Rudolph do it to me.
Frosty is pretty good too.
I like Frosty, too.
Isn’t there a scene where he and little Karen are lost in the North Woods and he takes her into a green house to keep her warm ... even though he’d melt.
Now why anyone has a greenhouse in the North Woods ... can’t answer that.
Well I live in the northwoods and dream of having a greenhouse so I am not paying though the nose for greens in the winter.
Iceland is filled with green houses heated by steam from their volcanos
Well, personally I always liked the movie. Watched it every year as a kid. It’s subtly sinister message didn’t mess me up in the least. To the contrary. I turned out to be a successful, productive and, dare I say, relatively wealthy citizen. And I *was* Rudolph in grade- and high-school!
Figuratively, of course. But I found my shiny red nose and, despite not having a powerfully influential fat friend like Santa Claus, thrived as a misfit can do only in America....
So what’s your take on “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”?
In a message to the Senate, March 1, 1886, declining to furnish papers on file relative to suspensions from office during the recess of that body, President Cleveland said, And so it happens that after an existence of nearly twenty years of an almost innocuous desuetude these laws are brought forth, apparently the repealed as well as the unrepealed, and put in the way of an executive who is willing, if permitted, to attempt an improvement in the methods of administration.
He referred particularly to a statute passed by Congress in 1867, during President Johnsons administration, enacting that in cases of suspension from office during a recess of the Senate, the President should report, within twenty days after the next meeting of the Senate, such suspension, with the evidence and reasons for his action in the case. The message of President Cleveland was called forth by a resolution of the Senate censuring the Attorney-General for his refusal to transmit certain papers relating to suspensions from office, as requested by the Senate, particularly in the case of George M. Dustin, attorney of the United States for the southern district of Alabama.
from S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Rudolf has a very typical problem for “accept the weird kid” stories, by making the weird kids the POV character their acceptance winds up being tied to something external. They always do something that makes one character change their mind, so then everybody does, but looked at straight on that message winds up being “get a powerful friend, get more friends”. If the POV character was one of the bullies, and we got to see them reconsider the oddball it would be a much better message. But also a lot harder to write. Which is why nobody does. I wouldn’t say the message is sinister, it’s just poorly executed and not really what they want it to be. Of course since we all grew up seeing this same message poorly structured the same way we kind of pretend they succeeded, you’ve got a to look at these stories slightly detached to see they really don’t.
Dr Seuss usually more thoroughly considered his messages and how they should be related. Notice in Grinch it’s the POV character who goes through the change, so we get to go through the realization with him and know why it happened. As opposed to Rudolf where the only clue we have to why everybody likes him now is Santa found him useful.
Well, we don’t agree on the movie, but I have to say you’ve put a lot of thought into it and give an excellent exegesis. Much more so than I ever did. I simply liked the movie as a kid and just let it go at that. So I’m surprised anyone has put so much thought into a thirty-year-old kids movie. (Do you have a literary background, or are you just well rounded? i.e., not a victim of public education?)
I hope in your real life you are involved in something important, that affects us all. You have a impressively fertile, analytic mind, which puts you light years ahead of the dregs currently running the nation (into the ground).
Also, I hope the fact that I have never bothered, nor cared, to analyze RRNR as deeply as you will not hold me in bad stead, and preclude me from joining in any FReeper games. :)
On Language; The Penumbra Of Desuetude
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/04/magazine/on-language-the-penumbra-of-desuetude.html
Ok, it’s a real word. But I ain’t gonna use it! :-)
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